ON THE TOWN (1949)

The Hollywood musical hit the streets — the real streets — for the first time when debut directors Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly took their cast to New York for location work for this film’s opening number. It was a logistical challenge. They had to hide cameras so they could grab a shot quickly and before co-star Frank Sinatra’s fans mobbed them. That footage added authenticity to the tale of three sailors (Kelly, Sinatra and Jules Munshin), who find love and adventure during a whirlwind 24-hour shore leave. Vera-Ellen, Betty Garrett and Ann Miller provided the love interests, with Alice Pearce as a comic stand-out playing Kelly’s blind date. While the 1944 musical had been a hit on Broadway, Hollywood only kept a few of Betty Comden/Adolph Green and Leonard Bernstein’s songs. However, two of them—“New York, New York” and Sinatra and Garrett’s comic “Come Up to My Place,”—are among the screen’s greatest numbers.

d. Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, 98m, DCP

Restoration by Warner Bros. Discovery.